Tuki Tiki

Tuki Tiki (meaning "repetitive language" or "roundabout language", from Toki Pona toki sike) is a radically minimalist conlang and an influencial one of Tokiponidos. It was created by ka Tumu (Ðoom Epictooþ) starting in 2020. It has 39 words and 8 phonemes.

Logo of tuki tiki

While Tuki Tiki is more minimalist compared to Toki Pona, it is not—nor is it meant to be—absolutely minimalist or the language with the fewest amount of words. Its goal is to to shrink down Toki Pona's grammar and vocabulary to an even simpler but usable scale.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant inventory of tuki tiki includes 5 Template:Ws. Comparing with Toki Pona, the phoneme /s/ merged with /t/, /w, j/ merged with /k/, and /n/ merged with /l/. Due to its small inventory, tuki tiki allows for great Template:W. For example, /t/ may be palatalized as [t͡s̠] or [s̠] before /i/.

Consonant phonemes of tuki tiki

	Template:W	Template:W	Template:W
Template:W	p	t	k
Template:W	m	l	Template:N/A

Vowels

The vowel inventory of tuki tiki is a three-vowel system, /a, i, u/. /e/ merged with /i/, and /o/ with /u/.

Vowels of tuki tiki

	Template:W	Template:W
Template:W	i	u
Template:W	a

Stress

Stress, similarly to Toki Pona, is placed on the first syllable of the word. In phrases with more than one word, the second word often has the heavier stress.

Wordlist

The lexicon of tuki tiki is entirely derived from Toki Pona, with the words' semantic spaces expanded to compensate for its small size. For example, the word tu is derived from Toki Pona Template:Tp, but the semantic space is more similar to Template:Tp.

Word	titi pula	Part of speech	Meaning	Etymology
a	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	all, only, exist, true, ah	Template:Tp
ala	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	no, not, nothing	Template:Tp
		Template:CellCategory	[question marker]
i	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	[object reference]	Template:Tp
iku	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	thing, substance, object	Template:Tp
ilu	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	tool, use, method, way	Template:Tp
ka	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	being, person, creature, alive	Template:Tp
kati	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	plant, non-moving creature, leaf, page	Template:Tp
ki	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	possible, able, maybe, can	Template:Tp
kiku	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	rock, hard, earth, ground, land, place	Template:Tp
ku	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	air, gas, spirit, feeling, vibe, sound	Template:Tp
la	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	[context reference]	Template:Tp
lapi	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	calm, rest, fuzzy, dim, inactive, cold	Template:Tp
li	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	this, that; him, her, them, it	Template:Tp, Template:Tp
		Template:CellCategory	[subject reference]: he, she, they, it, that
lika	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	line, stick, limb	Template:Tp
lili	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	little	Template:Tp
liti	Template:N/A	Template:Partial	cold, freeze, chill, inactive, resting, dim	Template:Tp
lu	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	[conjunction, preposition]	Template:Tp
lupa	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	hole, box, room, mouth, inside	Template:Tp
mi	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	me, my, us, our	Template:Tp
		Template:CellCategory	[subject reference]: I, we
muku	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	eat, food, tasty, sweet, pleasant	Template:Tp
muti	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	fun, play, culture, art	Template:Tp
paka	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	break, destroy, violence, conflict	Template:Tp
pali	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	do, make, creation, structure	Template:Tp
puka	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	side, backside, vicinity	Template:Tp
pula	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	good	Template:Tp
taka	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	move, go, come, change, time	Template:Tp
tama	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	same, similar, also, stay the same	Template:Tp
tiki	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	circle, cycle, repeat, pattern, again, time	Template:Tp
tiku	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	high, tall, big, important, top, head, sky	Template:Tp
tila	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	you, your	Template:Tp
		Template:CellCategory	[subject reference]: you
tilu	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	water, liquid	Template:Tp
timi	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	what?	Template:Tp
tipi	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	front, face, vertical surface	Template:Tp
titi	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	image, symbol, mean, represent	Template:Tp
tu	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	a lot, much, many, amount, group	Template:Tp
tuki	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	language, make noise, talk, think	Template:Tp
tula	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	know, feel, learn, knowledge, document	Template:Tp
tulu	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	sun, light, warm, colour, energy	Template:Tp
uli	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	want, need, force, goal, direction	Template:Tp
upi	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	new, fresh, begin, start, cause	Template:Tp

Writing systems

Glyphs in titi pula. Yellow glyphs are taken directly from Template:Tp, orange glyphs are based on it but modified, and pink glyphs are completely original.

Besides the Latin script, the most common way of writing the language is with the Logographic writing system titi pula, inspired by sitelen pona. As of February 2024, there are six font families with support for it.

Sample text

The following text is the translation of the Template:W, translated by Template:Tok.

<poem> ka a li tuki tama. ka li taka lu kiku Tilala li tiki lu li. tiki la ka li tuki i li: "taka. mi pali i kiku mi tulu i li." ka li ilu i kiku i tilu. pali kiku la ka li tuki i li: "taka. mi pali i kiku i lupa tiku. mi uli ala taka lu kiku tu, la mi tu mi uli i titi tama." tuki li la ka tiku li taka lu kiku li tula i kiku i lupa. ka tiku li tuki i li: "ka a li tu tama li tuki tama. li upi a uli ka. uli ka la a li ki. taka. mi taka lu kiku mi tu i tuki ka." tiku li taka i ka a lu kiku a. ka li ki ala pali i lupa tiku. kiku li li titi Papala lu upi li: tiku li tu i tuki i ka lu kiku a. </poem>

External links

• Improved grammar
• Grammar
• Wordlist
• Wordlist (in Toki Pona)
• Texts
• Cheat sheet